Luc stood, braced his hands on the table, and looked us over one by one. “Be careful out there. And set phasers on awesome.”
Crickets chirped in the silence.
Lindsey shook her head and patted Luc’s hand. “Better luck next time, hon.”
• • •
It was late, and the neighborhood was mostly dark. We parked on the side opposite the trailers and made our approach, quietly, in the dark. The gates were black wrought iron, cresting to a point between two stone pillars. The streets beyond were quiet, dotted with ornate streetlamps.
I looked up at the gate, which had to be twelve feet tall. I was better with down than with up and didn’t want to fudge an ascent in front of my colleagues.
But a wrought-iron gate was no match for a Jeff Christopher. While we huddled in the darkness beside one of the pillars, Jeff pointed his magic tablet at the card reader notched into the stone until the light above flashed green and the gates swung open.
“Achievement unlocked,” I said with awe, and caught his flashing grin.
“I knew you were a gamer at heart,” he whispered.
We crept quietly through the gates and into the neighborhood.
“The park’s up the street and around the curve,” Jeff whispered, tucking the tablet away again. We stuck to the median that separated the parkway. The trees on the hillock were still empty of leaves, but they gave us a bit of a shield in case anyone bothered to look.
The road curved, and we followed it to a pretty park that took up a long ellipse between two sets of houses.
There, beneath the limbs of winter-bare trees, were two silver, gleaming trailers.
The faint vibration of magic hummed in the air.
“We do one trailer at a time,” Ethan said. “Merit, Mallory, Catcher, and I will go inside. Jeff, Damien will wait here; keep an eye out.”
When everyone nodded, we crept to the closest one, found the door at the end. Ethan hopped onto a step at the back of the truck, pulled down a giant silver handle, and pulled open the door.
Steps descended, and Catcher and I followed Ethan inside.
“Jesus,” Ethan muttered, making a motion across his chest as if to ward off the evil.
The car was divided in half by a passageway, with fluorescent lights running above. It was clean and white and smelled faintly of pine-scented cleaner. Each side of the car had been divided into containers arranged like small sleeping pods. Each pod held a supernatural. I recognized a harpy, a leprechaun, his skin faintly green, a giantess sitting in the largest of them. They wore clean blue scrubs and looked to be in good health, but their eyes were blank and they stared absently.
Tears pricked at my eyes, but I pushed them back. Now wasn’t the time to grieve for the years they’d lost. It was time to give them the rest of their lives.
I looked over the cases, realized who was missing. “Niera and Aline aren’t here.”
“There’s another trailer yet,” Catcher reminded me. “They could be in there.”
“Then let’s get started,” I said. I moved to the first cage and put a hand on the lock—a long silver pin inside a complicated twisting mechanism—but Catcher slammed a hand against the door before I could open it.
I looked at him, bewildered. “We have to let them out.”
“We will,” he calmly said. “But unlocking the doors right now won’t help. If they’re charmed into this kind of oblivion, they aren’t going to be able to run out of here when we open the doors. And they might be spelled to attack.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
Catcher looked at Ethan. “I’ll take this trailer. Mallory can take the other. We’ll unwind the spells, get them ready for release.” He looked at Mallory. “You remember how?”
“Yep,” she said, crossing her arms to hide the tremble in her fingers. But I’d rather have her afraid than cocky and dangerous any day.
Ethan nodded and we walked outside again, explained what we’d seen.
“Damien, stay with Catcher. Jeff, stay with Mallory. Keep them safe while we find Regan.”
“One thing,” Catcher said, when Mallory and Jeff had left for the other train car. He pulled a set of connected silver hoops from his pocket. “Handcuffs, magically enhanced. It’s what we used on Mallory. They should hold her.” He tossed them into the air, and Ethan caught them neatly with one hand.
“Thank you,” he said. “Get them free.”
With a nod and a spark of magic, he got to work. Ethan and I surveyed the park.
“Odds are better if we separate,” I told Ethan.
“I agree. I’ll take the east side. You take the west.”
I nodded, adjusted the tension on my belt. “Will do. I’ll call if I find her.”
“Do that.” Before I could leave, he wrapped an arm around my waist, pulled my body against him, and pressed a hard kiss to my lips. “Do protect what’s mine, Sentinel.”
I made a sound at the possessive tone in his voice but still reveled in it. That I was strong enough to take down a foe didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy Ethan’s alpha male attitude every once in a while.
“Same to you, Sullivan,” I said, and headed off down the sidewalk.
The night was chilly, but this was Chicago, gated or not, and Chicagoans were used to the chill. A few people were out and about, walking dogs or returning late from work with quick steps around the edge of the park. Including one girl with platinum blond hair.
I’ve got her, I told Ethan. East side of the park, moving south.
I’ll circle behind, he said. You intercept, and carefully.
Without killing civilians or myself, he meant. Not unreasonable advice.
I stepped off the path, watched while she moved closer. She wore a long black coat, nipped at the waist and buttoned up, and a large glossy shopping bag hung off her shoulder.
As she neared, I caught the unmistakable scents of smoke and sulfur.
When she was four feet away, I stepped in front of her. “Hello, Regan.”
She stopped, eyed me curiously. “Merit, I presume. Sentinel of Cadogan House.”
“That’s me. I understand you have wings.”
I’d hoped to catch her off guard with the reference to something I bet she showed very few people.
The ploy worked. Her eyes widened, and her hands whitened around her bag. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I do, actually. At least, I think I do. Your mother told you your father was special.”
Her jaw twitched, and her voice was controlled fury. “You don’t know anything about my mother.”
“Oh, I know a lot about Annalissa. And your father was special, as it turns out. Magical and talented and very unique. I’m sorry to say that he’s no longer with us, but his twin brother is alive. Your uncle.” At least, that was the relationship I’d decided on. We were in the fuzzy territory where magic and genetics collided, and I wasn’t really sure of anything.
“Oh, and your uncle’s an angel.”
For the first time, she looked genuinely flummoxed. “What?”
“An angel, and a very good man, Regan. I can help you meet him, if you’d like.”
She snorted. “You think I’m going to trust you? You want to put me in a cage.”
She didn’t seem to get the irony. “You’ve committed crimes in several states,” I pointed out. “Kidnapping, primarily.”
She looked disgusted by my ignorance. “They weren’t kidnapped. They are my family.”
“They are in cages. Drugged and stuffed inside cages like animals while you’ve been out shopping.” She flinched, proving I was on the right track.
“Is that how you treat family? You keep them safely locked away so they aren’t gone when you return home? So they don’t leave you like your father did?”
“You don’t know anything about me or my family.”
“I know too much,” I said, the honest truth. “And I know you can’t force a family with magic just because you’re pissed off at the real one.”
I’d pushed her over the edge. She let out a scream, whipped around the shopping bag, and slung it at me. I put up an arm to dodge it, wincing when the weight of it hit my arm. Using my hesitation, she took off across the park.
And so the chase began.
She’s heading for the trailers, I told Ethan, running full out and trying to close the gap between us. She hurdled a bench and I followed, thrilled when the vault put me five feet closer to her.
I paused long enough to pluck the dagger from my boot and send it spiraling, end over end, in her direction.
Regan yelped when it bit into her shoulder, stumbled forward but caught herself, yanked it out with a scream.
The scents of smoke and sulfur grew stronger. When she turned back to me, the dagger glinting in her hand, there was murder in her eyes. “Do you know what I am?”
“I do,” I assured her, unsheathing my katana and settling my fingers around the handle. I kept my gaze on hers, and my expression just as haughty.
“You’re the daughter of Dominic Tate. The niece of Seth Tate, former mayor of Chicago, and an angel. You’re also a spoiled brat. But that’s just my opinion.”
Regan launched herself forward, swiping the blade in a shot I neatly dodged.
I sliced horizontally, and she ducked to avoid the blow, bringing up the dagger with a clean shot that nicked my shin. A line of pain burned hot, but I ignored it, finished my spin, and attacked downward.
She rolled across the ground, popping up a few feet away. We circled each other, and as we turned, I caught movement from the corner of my eye—Ethan stood nearby, his sword still sheathed but his eyes cold and calculating.
Feel free to join in, I told him, jumping back to dodge her advance and the tip of the blade.
You seem to be managing fine on your own. The sups are unspelled and released. You might mention that to her.
“The gig’s up, Regan. The sups are gone. It’s just you and me.”
